Four Poets Series
-
Author
bruce-curley -
Category
Documents
-
view
271 -
download
0
Embed Size (px)
Transcript of Four Poets Series
-
8/4/2019 Four Poets Series
1/21
Bruce Curley
poetslife.blogspot.com
retained
Poetry pulled from the Four Poets Series submission.
a dream of love
we make love-----
and all
the pent-up power
within her
is unleashed
and I
am swept past
great cities
that came and went
armies that changed maps
and prophets
who threw out the call
until finally
crystalline figures
line the dwelling
and I
am totally in aweof her shape
and strength
I
who won herfrom her father
and brothers
in a fight
that almost
cost my life
I
who had
some part
in the children
who burst forth
from her
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected] -
8/4/2019 Four Poets Series
2/21
I
who never
quite
comprehend her
even realize
that right now
she consumes me
she absorbs
my strength and life
and determine
what direction
they take
I follow her
deep into space
past galaxies
and years
to glimpse
beyond
life and thoughtour destiny
lived now
lived before
lived tomorrow
all as one
for this knowledge ------I follow.
-
8/4/2019 Four Poets Series
3/21
Of Your Earthen Body
This water gains power
and flows full,
increasing in pressureUntil it runs into
The forest.................., the dam..................
...............the massive dike.
The pressure builds ------------
And this life giving
water
pushes and slams
Seeks some final release
until it can no longer
be contained
inside.
And nature demands
her satisfaction
and pulls the waves
with a full-bodied moonThat y..a..n..k..s the water
through
the vacuum.
It is here life lives
here the soul dances
here evolution rules
Until, there is no quiet.
There is no peace.
There is only the answer,
"Because there is no other!"
To my eternal question, "WHY!"
"AAAAAUUUAAAGHGHGHGHGHG!!!"
I scream in surrender
As the seed-bearing water
overflows the dam,
enters the fertilevalley,
And embeds silently
In the reservoir
Of your earthen body.
-
8/4/2019 Four Poets Series
4/21
The Day After
I awaken......
.....in vague stirrings....
...of dreams...
Was there......
.......who handled me clean?
In the nights remembrance....
.....sounds of streams....
My strength was dismantled.......
.....beam....by....beam.
-
8/4/2019 Four Poets Series
5/21
Eamons Poem
Kicking your mother
from inside the liquid universe of the womb...
I feel so crippled and broken when considering
I have so much to teach you
and only the remaining lifetime to do so.
It is hopeless, really, except these two gems
that came down from a long, long line
of men and women who survived centuries of Vikings
whose barbarity was only surpassed
by the neighbor invader who considered genocide
by the rule of law such a jolly good adventure
and stole all the food in the very middle
of the famine of all famines.
Through it all, your ancestors survived
tenaciously creative and green as mosson the back of a stone on the gentle Shannon river
and these two gems skip across that great river
to the Delaware where once, when wondering
of ancestral roots I asked my father,"Dad, what is it to be American?"
"Work!" "What?" I asked.
"Work!" he repeated. "Your grandfather worked.
I worked. You'll work." "That's all?"
"That's all." he answered.
"Then what is it to be Irish?""Hilarity!" He didn't skip a beat again.
"Hilarity!" You gotta make 'em laugh!"
So there it is, Eamon Patrick.
If God takes me before I get to teach you
all you need to know, let these two words suffice:
work and hilarity.
Work and hilarity saved your people
over centuries of warfare, pestilence, invasion,
slavery, defeat, and famine and eventually defeated
the greatest power on earth so I could write you this poem.
Work and hilarity can carry you to the universe
and to other planets and when you find
a particularly hard planet, name it "Work"
and when you find an especially funny planet,
name it "Hilarity."
No matter what the planet or year,
-
8/4/2019 Four Poets Series
6/21
work and hilarity are in your genes
as am I, and all of my dreams.
-
8/4/2019 Four Poets Series
7/21
My True Home
Just
this morningI awoke
so in love with you
that inside
a cloud BURST
balloon-like
to lift me high above
the city lights
over highways
and country roads
to an oak cabin
in the woods
where by a fireof apple and peach tree
I laid my head
against your lap
and found theremy true home.
-
8/4/2019 Four Poets Series
8/21
The Life Cycle
A small boy
is carried
from a car
asleep.
His father,
tenderly,
transports the child
from car to house.
Years later,
when the boy
carried the father
gently to the grave,
and remembered
powerful arms,
carrying
him once,
from somewhere,
to somewhere,the life cycle --
was complete.
-
8/4/2019 Four Poets Series
9/21
-
8/4/2019 Four Poets Series
10/21
Words Never Die
When they ask you at school,
"And what does your father do?"
Tell them he is a craftsman,
A craftsman of fine words.
A craftsman in the Medieval sense.
A man who takes pride in sculpting
Completed poems out of a vast quarry
Of known but inartistically used language.
And when they say,"But isn't that a rather unproductive
And silly occupation for a full grown man?"
Say to them back:
"No. His words may survive intact,
While your father's money is spent,
And your father's property is divided,
And your father's corporation is absorbed,
And your father's wife grows old and dies.
But words cannot be spent, divided, absorbed or die.
Words never die; only the people who poorly use them."
-
8/4/2019 Four Poets Series
11/21
Mid-Night Milk Run
Ladies,
Beware
of mentoo willing
to go
for a gallon
of milk at night.
Such time
allows
copious
amounts of time
to hand the bookie
or the dope dealer
or the other womanor any number
of temptations
family money
or the pathto your
mans heart.
So when he returns
with that gallon of milk
always check it twice:
Once to make sure
all the creamhasnt been skimmed
from the top;
And once to make
absolutely sure
both he and the milk
are still pure and white.
-
8/4/2019 Four Poets Series
12/21
The Last Rose
The last rose of the season
remains uncut on the rose bush
in the unnoticed corner of the yard
by the crumbling yellow pine fence.
I could, it is true, cut it
and bring it to you, as before;
Or simply snip it and place it
in the Waterford vase in the kitchen...
but it is the end of the season.
This ruined Fall could soon be Winter.
The days with no talk could be weeks
Until the weeks are years, and divorce.
No, that rose will remain where it is.When it dies, its stem attaches to roots
That are strong in minerals, dirt, water.
And Spring has so much renewal to give.
-
8/4/2019 Four Poets Series
13/21
forces women control men's lives by
there are forces
that erupt,
tear apart,spill out,
emerge,
and reerupt,
in vast spaces.....
vast spaces
of no entrance
or exit
vast interior spaces
surrounded
by no exteriors
souls
within bodies
within soulswithin bodies
spaces
that exist
within
larger
than galaxies
unexplored
spaces to be entered
hauntingly,
cautiously,
for fear
of no return
spaces
where life
determines life
-
8/4/2019 Four Poets Series
14/21
within these places
there are forces
quite unknowable
whose only
manifestation
is a woman's lovethe birth of a child
forces men
can touch
but never
realize
forces women
control
men's lives by
which menas many times ask
will never
know
why
-
8/4/2019 Four Poets Series
15/21
The Comedians Choice
Two Comedians pummeled an audience with jokes.
They jabbed at their collective neurosis.
Swung wildly at their latent fears.
Then kicked them right in their lifestyles.
After the round was over,
The comedians returned to a corner table
Filled with beautiful women and booze
And sat there nervously trying to calm their anxiety.
Sitting there,
With a choice between the women, the anxiety and the booze,Both men raised their fists to sup their glasses dry,
Ordered doubles, and tapped their feet nervously.
-
8/4/2019 Four Poets Series
16/21
Reflections on New Surroundings
Pigeons watch from above
an L-shaped streetlight
the afternoon procession
of afterwork urban manandwoman
home to loved ones, television,
dinner, outside interests or no one.
Old gray bearded wino
with rayon purple scarf on neck
perched in front of TEMPLE BEVERAGES
featuring LIQUOR, PEPSI AND CIGARETTES
(contraband up from the tobacco fieldsof red clay Piedmont South).
Down 17th Street ONE WAY
drive white orange black Capital Cabsblue and white with red roof
sirened 96 CAPITAL POLICE cars
AIRPORT SERVICE GREYHOUND BUS
all knowing LEFT LANE MUST TURN LEFT.
Along the sidewalk a young Iranian student
newly arrived to the Land of Opportunity
tries not to look so foreignby wearing clothes he bought
in American Made in Taiwan.
At Saint Matthew's Cathedral
Sanctus Matthaus gold and red tiled
on the front holding Bible saying,
"THE BIBLE OF SAINT MATTHEW"
while below him entering and leaving
church goers look forward past
old crippled beggar
with black ski cap for spare change
in hand and wooden crutch by side.
-
8/4/2019 Four Poets Series
17/21
Highway Poem for Colleen
I
I crash down Highway 98
Shouting your name
Screaming your praisesRemembering other highways.....
76 Schuylkill Expressway swift
Liberty Bell love long cast
Philadelphia Art Museum strong
Wissahickon Creek Green Valley winding
Delaware River Deep
Billy Penn Principled
St. Peter's and Paul's blessed.
I look over to see.....Your face laughing
Your face puzzledYour face angelic
Your face enveloping
My soul
until your handReached across the distance
to take my hand between
Until your hand
Became life itself for me
an anchor in an anonymous
And frightening urban sea.
Where your hand
Provided a warm and loving homeAfter cruel, unrelenting city storms.
II
78 Florida fun funny
Gray and pink racing porpoises
Discovering Corinthians wisdom
While exceeding the legal limit
Kaleidoscope of car colors
Exploding in an orange sun
Blue-skyed canvas of cars
Cars more numerous than sand.
-
8/4/2019 Four Poets Series
18/21
I looked over to see.....Your face perturbed
Your face petulant
Your face pedantic
Your face prism
Reflecting my soul
Surprised at its power
To love........To hurtTo run.......To return
To take.......To give
To break......To survive.
When your head rested
Flush with sleep and dreams
On my lap as I drove
I would have fought the whole world
Before anyone would have harmed you.
III
95 Kennedy Space Center potential
Rockets of love launched
Booster rockets in reserve
Space station steadyStars as loves highlights
Suns burning at night
Whole universes to be explored
Worlds over years to spin lore.
I looked over to see.......Your face bright
Your face light
Your face confusedYour face eternal
Absorbing my soul
So that when I said
I might walk away
And you cried softly
In truth as well could I
Ignore gravity
Walk from my family
Walk from God's love
Walk from Heaven's Angels.
-
8/4/2019 Four Poets Series
19/21
IV
84 Deep South Bible Backbone
Tiny Bible churches of conviction
The Word is The Word is The Word
Trees so big they wore clouds
Sun so brilliant it blindedCountry stores of country caring
Country ways of country sharing
Clay and grace, earth, and rebirth.
The cycle of nature ever present.
I looked over to see.......Your face absent
Your face somewhere
Your face memory
Your face paining
straining my soul
I drove but in a daze
Half expecting you to appearAt each country gas station
Or store
But there were only
Shadows of youThat disappeared
And reappeared in mists
and midnight forest
Until finally......
I
I crash down Highway 98
Shouting your name
Singing your praises
Remembering other highways.....
Remembering there are
Miles of highway
In this land alone
Yet to be explored.
Over the miles of telephone line
I hear your voice.
-
8/4/2019 Four Poets Series
20/21
Over galaxies of futures......
I promise to crash down
Shouting your name
Screaming your praises
Remembering other highways......
Each old star a memory bought
Each new star a memory sought
For you......for you.....for you.....
-
8/4/2019 Four Poets Series
21/21
Poetry Work Ethic
...Then theres the poetry work ethicDifferent from any other work ethic
because it derives from hidden places
and screams,You write down this poem NOW!!!
Write the poem down...
despite the baby screaming to be changed,
for food, for a bottle, for attention
Write the poem down...
despite the stabbing back pain
that cleaves the bodyinto two separate bodies
each separate but greater as two
Write the poem NOW...
despite the boss over the shoulder
always asking, I hope thats our work
your doing on on our nickel?
yet unwilling to accpet the answer,Yes! The work of God.Yes! The work of the Muse.
Yes!..The work of ages...
Write the poem NOW!!!
Despite the impediments of family
body, and the day time job
if it is to last into the next milleneaum
or even the next hour.